The fog freeze in yesterday’s picture was actually from December. The actual fog freeze (hoar frost) in Ashland yesterday never did thaw, a first. When I woke up this morning the continuing fog and freezing temperatures had furthered the spectacle. The fog lifted for a bit for the sunrise which I captured here.

Note that this is not a pine tree; nor has there been any snow. The branches on these Japanese Maples are smooth as can be in the winter. The prickliness is completely from the frozen fog. (Maximize your browser and click on the image for the full effect.)

After 36+ hours of continual fog freeze, things finally broke today just before noon. I walked around campus while the trees seemed to be raining. The “rain” was thick though, sort of like sleet. The trees completely gave up all of the frozen fog within about 10 minutes. I have seen snow melt from trees, but this was very different. I doubt I’ll ever see anything like that kind of “tree rain” again.

Posted on January 5th, 2011 under nature • Tags: fog, sunrise, winter. • RSS 2.0 feed • Both comments and pings are currently closed